Sustainable Society and Forest Community

Abstract

Since the 1980s, the concept of sustainability has been much discussed, particularly in the context of “sustainable development”. One of the most important debates relates to whether we choose a concept of weak sustainability or strong sustainability. Weak sustainability assumes that man-made capital and natural capital are substitutable. In contrast, strong sustainability insists on the non-substitutability and complementarity of natural capital and man-made capital. In this paper, we prefer the paradigm of strong sustainability, with Herman Daly, and at the same time we insist on the need to critically expand his concept of natural capital. Specifically, we take an instrumentalist view of natural capital by adopting the capabilities approach of Martha Nussbaum, and we make the heterogeneity of natural capital clear and insist on the need to distinguish stocks and funds as subordinate concepts. Moreover, we examine briefly the history of German forestry and forest management that is the source of the sustainability concept, and clarify what we should learn from there. The sustainability of the forest had inevitably collapsed when technocracy joined with commercialism in a situation of immature ecological awareness. We suggest that respect for ecosystemic multiple functions is very important. The forest is not only one of the bases of life activity on earth, but also represents natural capital with multiple ecosystem services that should be sustained for future generations.